On September 4, 1971, a government mapping plane accidentally photographed a disc-shaped object over Lake Cote in Costa Rica. The image has survived 54 years of scrutiny. No one has convincingly explained it. Now, for the first time, the man who took the photograph is talking.
On the morning of September 4, 1971, a twin-engine Aero Commander was flying at approximately 10,000 feet over the northern highlands of Costa Rica. The mission was routine: a government aerial survey to assess land and water resources near the Arenal Volcano. A precision Zeiss mapping camera, mounted in the floor of the aircraft, was firing automatically -- one frame every few seconds.
Frame 300 captured something no one expected. Between the ordinary landscape images bracketing it on either side, a disc-shaped object appeared -- clearly defined, sharply rendered, apparently in flight above the lake below. The image was catalogued into Costa Rica's national archive, where it has remained for over fifty years with an unbroken chain of custody.
Unlike nearly every other famous UAP photograph, the Cote Photo was taken from above. Not by a witness with a camera pointing at the sky -- but by a government mapping instrument pointed at the ground. That single fact places it in a category of its own.
The Cote Photo is a documentary film by Adam Pillon and Megan Woomer Pillon that goes to Costa Rica to find the people connected to this image -- and to ask not only what the object was, but what it means to carry an unexplained experience for half a century.
For interview requests, screener access, press credentials, and all media inquiries. Typically responds within 24 hours.
Available for interviews, podcast appearances, and press screenings. All requests coordinated through the Pursuing X press team.
The following individuals are available for media interviews. All requests coordinated through Michael Moriarty at Pursuing X.
Adam Pillon is the director and producer of The Cote Photo, his first feature documentary. Based in Detroit, Michigan, Adam began his filmmaking career driven by a mission to give voice to stories that exist at the edges of mainstream conversation.
The film began as a question on a trip to Costa Rica and became a multi-year investigation into one of the most compelling UAP photographs ever captured. Adam is available to discuss the filmmaking process, the UAP disclosure landscape, and the human stories behind the film.
Megan Woomer Pillon is the co-director and producer of The Cote Photo. A Detroit-based filmmaker and storyteller, Megan brings a focus on emotional truth and human connection to the film's approach -- ensuring the experiencers at the center of the story are treated with care and dignity.
Megan is available to discuss the documentary process, the experiencer community, and what it means to create space for stories that resist easy explanation.
Sergio Loaiza is the aerial cartographer who, on September 4, 1971, unknowingly captured the Cote Photo during a routine Costa Rican government mapping mission. The image -- Frame 300 of an archived survey roll -- has been examined by researchers for over fifty years and has never been convincingly debunked.
After decades of quiet reflection, Sergio is now speaking publicly about both the photograph and his lifelong experiences with UAP phenomena. His firsthand account is the emotional and evidentiary centerpiece of the film. Interview coordination required; Spanish/English.
Esteban Carranza is a Costa Rican attorney and internationally recognized UAP researcher who arranged the 2022 Heidelberg Tango drum scan of the original Cote Photo negative -- producing the highest-resolution archival image of the anomaly ever made publicly available.
Esteban brings a rigorous, evidence-based analytical approach to UAP research and is available to discuss the provenance of the photograph, the scan process, and the broader significance of the image in the current disclosure landscape.
Leslie Kean is an independent investigative journalist and New York Times bestselling author widely recognized for her groundbreaking UAP reporting. She co-authored a series of landmark New York Times stories beginning in 2017 that revealed the existence of the Pentagon's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) -- reports that fundamentally shifted the public and governmental conversation around UAP.
She is also the author of UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record (2010). Leslie appears in the film and is available for select press interviews.
Michael Strickland is an award-winning large-format photographer and alternative process printmaker based in Liberal, Kansas. His laboratory conducted the 2022 Heidelberg Tango drum scan of the Cote Photo negative, producing the most detailed view of the anomaly in the image's fifty-year history.
Rooted in analog tradition -- platinum-palladium and carbon transfer printing -- Strickland brings both technical precision and artistic credibility to the film's examination of the photograph. Available to discuss the scanning process and photographic analysis.